Key posts
- Confronting global challenges will shape May budget: Treasurer
- Universities call for overhaul of fees
- Bank employee kills four in US state of Kentucky
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Confronting global challenges will shape May budget: Treasurer
The May budget will bolster the Australian economy against the worst global growth forecasts in 30 years, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says as he prepares to leave Australia for meetings in the United States to discuss the international outlook.
Chalmers will fly to Washington, DC, on Wednesday with Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy for G20 finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ meetings. They will also attend International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says his May budget will be shaped by global economic uncertainty.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Chalmers said international uncertainty would be a key influence on the budget he hands down in four weeks.
“Global conditions have become more complex and confronting than they were even a few months ago,” Chalmers said.
Further details on the treasurer’s plan are available here.
Universities call for overhaul of fees
Universities want the Albanese government to scrap fee changes designed to lower student costs for priority degrees and raise them for others because they have forced them “to do more with less”.
Peak body Universities Australia argues revenue has been cut by an average of 6 per cent for each student place. It is calling on the Commonwealth to fully fund university research, saying the sector’s reliance on fees from international students to cover more than half the cost is unsustainable.
Universities Australia chief Catriona Jackson says the reliance on international student fee revenue to fund nationally important research must end.
The former Morrison government’s Job Ready Graduates fee changes – which increased domestic fees for fields of study such as humanities, law and commerce, and cut them in fields such as health and education – have ultimately reduced total funding to the sector and should be replaced, Universities Australia argues in a submission to the Albanese government’s universities accord panel.
More on the debate about university fees here.
Bank employee kills four in US state of Kentucky
A 23-year-old used a rifle to kill four people — including a close friend of the governor — Monday at the Louisville bank where he was an employee, authorities said.
The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 260 kilometres to the south. That state’s governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear lost a close friend in the shooting.Credit: AP
Police in Louisville arrived as gunshots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and exchanged fire with the shooter, who died, Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said at a news conference. He said it wasn’t clear whether the shooter killed himself or was shot by officers.
Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon.
Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the shooting, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine said in an email.
The full story on the latest shooting in the US is available here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning, and thanks for your company after the Easter long weekend.
It’s Tuesday, April 11. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
- Government is launching cyber ‘war games’ for major banks to test how they would respond to debilitating hacks.
- Clean energy projects are being approved at twice the rate of previous years, with the federal government wanting to add more wind farms and solar projects to the grid.
- Australia’s consumer watchdog wants more power to tackle online ‘subscription traps’, that make it difficult for customers to leave after a free trial or a discount period ends.
- Doctors want to double prescription lengths, but the country’s Pharmacy Guild is arguing for a $19 cap on medicines.
- The treasurer aims to bolster Australia’s economy against the worst global growth forecasts in 30 years, as Jim Chalmers prepares to head overseas.
- In the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to welcome US President Joe Biden who is set to arrive in Belfast for a four-day visit to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
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